SC CIVIL AIR PATROL HISTORY
On 01 December 1941, South Carolina Wing (Wing 43) was established and placed under the Command of Lt Col Dexter C. Martin.
Dexter Martin began flying in 1919 when he took lessons with Amelia Earhart. He obtained his pilot’s license in 1919, signed by Orville Wright.
He came to South Carolina in the late 1920’s as a barnstormer in Mabel Cody’s Flying Circus. As Martin flew the airplane, Miss Cody, niece of Wild West showman Buffalo Bill Cody, climbed out of the plane on a rope ladder and painted “WOCO PEP” (the name of the airplane fuel maker that sponsored her) on the wing.
In 1935, the South Carolina Legislature created the state Aeronautics Commission, and Martin was its first executive director.
During World War II, he developed the Lexington County Airport to base a special Defense Landing Program known as Doolittle’s Raiders.
He established the Palmetto School of Aeronautics for aviation mechanism and was inducted into the Aviation Pioneers Hall of Fame in 1976.
South Carolina Wing was part of Region 4 (Corps Area), along with Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.
On December 14, 1941, the organization of the Wing began at the Wade Hampton Hotel where pilots from all over the state met and received instructions from Dexter Martin, who was at the time the Director of the South Carolina Aeronautics commission, and the first Wing Commander.
The Wing would be composed of three groups, six squadrons, and twenty-four flights. The intent was to have one flight in twenty-one cities across South Carolina. Each flight would be composed of three to fifteen pilots. The six initial squadrons within the wing were: Anderson, Greenville, Spartanburg, Rock Hill, Columbia, and Charleston. The flights included Florence, Gaffney, and Orangeburg.
The plan was to improve flight training, and to fit civil aircraft and airmen into the defense of the country. Their mission was to carry out functions that to relieve the military forces with civil pilots and aircraft.
CAP would be called to provide services such as pulling targets for anti-aircraft crews, night flights for search light batteries, patrol duties, ferry service, messenger service, etc. At the time, it was not expected that CAP members would be armed.
During WWII, coastal patrols were established along the eastern seaboard for the purpose of identifying any German U-boats that were preying on the shipping lands of the United States.
On 23 May 1942, under the leadership of Lt. Col. Martin, Civil Air Patrol activated Coastal Patrol No. 8 within the 25th Wing, at Carolina Skyways on James Island, near Charleston, South Carolina (32°42'42.09"N 79°58'44.12"W).
Coastal Patrol 8 flew its first mission on May 30th, 1942.
